Travel Photo Of The Day: Tamales

A Latin American dish familiar to many Americans is the tamale. Wrapped in either corn or plantain leaves, traditional tamales are steamed and made of a corn-based dough known as masa that's filled with beef, pork, or chiles.

Click here to see the Travel Photo of the Day Slideshow!

Variations of the tamale actually date back to the time of the Aztecs. Today, there are believed to be roughly 1,000 different types of tamales throughout different Mexican regions!

Although somewhat time-consuming, tamales can be made at home. A key step is to let the meat simmer for hours so that it is very tender. Once it's ready, it's seasoned and mixed with other ingredients before being stuffed into the masa and then wrapped into leaves and steamed.

Want to try making your own tamales at home? Check out our tamales recipe!

Do you have a travel photo that you would like to share? Send it on over to lwilson[at]thedailymeal.com.

Follow The Daily Meal's Travel editor Lauren Wilson on Twitter.